Perfect iPad Add-On for Engineers Uses MEMS

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Kickstarter crowdfunding site has helped launch a startup leveraging micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) chips to create the perfect iPad add-on for engineers -- a cover that allows pen-and-paper schematics to be digitized in real time.

The iSketchnote iPad cover digitizes anything written on a plain piece of paper (right) and duplicates it on the iPad screen (left).
SOURCE: iSketchnote

The company, ISKN LLC (Grenoble, France) was spun-off just this year by the Laboratoire d'électronique des technologies de l'information (Leti) a French research institute for electronics and information technologies and a subsidiary of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA).

Launched by a Kickstarter program that raised its goal of $35,000 in just 11 hours, and ultimately reached $346,127, the iSketchnote digitizing iPad cover will be available commercially in July 2014 at a price of $189.

A array of STMicroelectronics three-axis magnetometers on a printed-circuit board enables the Kickstarter iSketchnote project to track a passive pen with an embedded ring magnet.
SOURCE: iSketchnote

Using an array of MEMS magnetometers from STMicroelectronics, users can draw on any sheet of plain paper laid on the inside flap of the open cover to digitize their schematics in realtime, which appear on the iPad screen as they draw. Passive pens with embedded ring magnets are tracked by the magnetometers to reproduce the drawings on the iPad screen with sub-millimeter accuracy, according to ISKN.

"ISKN has developed algorithms that can very precisely locate the position of the pen's tip, from the location of the magnet in the pen body, using the three-axis magnetometers from STMicroelectronics," said Stephen Walsh, a consultant for ISKN who also teaches electronics classes as an adjunct faculty member at North Carolina State University (NCSU).

Walsh plans to use the iSketchnote to draw electronic schematics for his classes when it becomes available next year. A special animation feature will also be useful, since it allows the sequence of a drawing to be played back, allowing him to pre-draw schematics one stage at a time, then play back the animation in class explaining each stage as it is redraw for the students.

Source: iSketchnote

The iSketchnote was not conceived by ISKN with engineers specifically in mind, but rather for iPad users who miss the freedom of drawing or taking notes by hand on real paper. It will come with a variety of different colored pens, which the iPad will reproduce in the matching color.

Next, the engineers at ISKN plan to expand from iPad covers into whiteboards, game boards, 3-D animations and other applications of their pen-tracking technology.

Hello Junko, The product was developed specifically with the artist in mind. The application of the technology in the classroom is just one of the niches that ISKN intends to experitment with as we further develop the business model. I suggest you look at http://sketchnotearmy.com/ (not affiliated with ISKN) for additional ideas on how the iSketchnote can be applied. Best, Stephen

This is the product what needs to be a perfect companion for iPad users, but still the price is very high as compared to other iPad accessories. Since this product is using magnetometers and a passive pens with embedded ring magnets it will be very continent way to track the movement of pen without any contact mechanism, but still I think it will require some practice to get used to with it, as the pen will be sensed from certain distance from paper and that need to be intelligently prevented to disallow the false tracking of pen.

Me too, but my main attraction is just the ability to make drawings. I don't know how many times I have been frustrated with the inability to conveniently digitize paper sketches I've made of "ideas"--the proverbial cocktail napkin sketch. You can run them through a scanner, or can use a stylus to make sketches directly on the iPad, but the iSketchnote gives you the best of both worlds and is always available, since the pad of paper is always right there inside the front cover. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best!

Yes, the ISKN engineers had artists in mind when they created the iSketchnote--it was their consultant--Stephen Walsh who teaches electronics at NCSU and helped them with their product development who advised them that it would also be perfect for engineers. And in fact, their next-generation product, which Stephen says they already have working in the lab, uses real paint brushes of differnet sizes. When artists picks a brush size and paint on the paper, the iPad faithfully reproduces the correct brush stroke size on its screen. He also mentioned some kind of "pallette" system for picking colors.